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Nigeria Kidnap Families Want ‘Unconditional’ Release

Nigeria Kidnap Families Want ‘Unconditional’ Release

Abuja (AFP) – Relatives of more than 200 schoolgirls held hostage by Boko Haram on Thursday called for their unconditional release, after Nigeria’s government ruled out a prisoner swap with the extremists.

An on-the-run Boko Haram suspect wanted in connection with a bomb attack that killed 75 in Abuja was meanwhile arrested in Sudan, while the UN pledged to do all it could to help end the crisis.

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau indicated in a video this week that he could release the 223 girls now held for more than a month in exchange for militant fighters in custody in Nigerian jails.

But Britain’s Africa minister Mark Simmonds said after meeting President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday that the head of state was adamant there “will be no negotiation that involves a swap.”

Ayuba Chibok, whose niece is among the hostages, said the girls’ detention was taking its toll on parents and families in their remote town from where the teenagers were abducted on April 14.

“For me, I want these girls released without any negotiations. Even if Boko Haram wants to request something from the government, let them request something else,” he told AFP by telephone from Chibok.

“Let (Shekau) release these girls unconditionally,” he added.

The mass abduction — and Boko Haram claims that the girls would be sold as slaves — has led to global outrage and galvanized the international community to help Nigeria end the crisis.

U.S. drones and manned surveillance aircraft have been deployed, the Pentagon said, while Britain was sending a spy plane and a military team to Abuja to work alongside French and Israeli experts.

The United Nations special envoy for West Africa, Said Djinnit, met Jonathan and said a package of measures were in place to help the girls after their release, including psychological counselling.

“The U.N. is committed to do its utmost within its capacity to assist the authorities of Nigeria in their efforts towards the release of the schoolgirls,” he said in Abuja.

Nigeria’s capital was hit by its worst ever bombing on April 14, when a car bomb ripped through a crowded bus station in the Nyanya suburb. Boko Haram were blamed.

The country’s secret police the Department of State Services (DSS) said this week that five men had been arrested on suspicion of carrying out the attack but the two alleged masterminds were at large.

One of them, British-born Nigerian Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche, was held on Tuesday as he tried to get a visa from the Turkish embassy in central Khartoum, where he had been studying Arabic, a source close to the case told AFP.

The DSS said Ogwuche, an army deserter who served in an intelligence unit, had previously been arrested on suspicion of terror offences in November 2011 at Abuja international airport but bailed the following October.

In parliament, senators were quizzing security and military commanders before voting on a request by Jonathan for a six-month extension to a state of emergency in three northeast states.

Jonathan has called the security situation in the region “daunting” and said he was concerned by the mounting loss of life among civilians.

More than 2,000 have been killed this year alone, most of them ordinary people, in the five-year insurgency across Muslim-majority northern Nigeria that has seen churches, schools and entire villages attacked.

Members of the lower House of Representatives were also expected to vote, with a two-thirds majority from members of both chambers required for an extension to be approved.

The state of emergency was first imposed on Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states on May 14 last year and extended in November, as attacks continued, particularly in hard-to-reach rural areas.

Yobe’s governor has already rejected extending the special powers. Borno and Adamawa, which are also run by the main political opposition, are expected to follow suit.

Initial gains in forcing Boko Haram out of urban centers appeared to have been lost because of the continued strife, with questions raised about the military’s tactics and ability to curb the threat.

Analysts have said conventional means are ineffective against an enemy fighting a guerrilla war while more was needed to boost intelligence and even equip demoralized soldiers on the front line.

Disgruntled troops on Tuesday fired shots into the air when the local commander paid a visit to the state capital of Borno, Maiduguri to sympathize with them after a Boko Haram ambush killed some of their comrades.

Six soldiers, including one officer, were killed as they returned from patrol duties in Chibok, the defense ministry said, adding that the commander was not injured by the firing.

©afp.com / Tony Karumba

Release Of Jonathan Pollard Once Again Appears Under Debate

Release Of Jonathan Pollard Once Again Appears Under Debate

By Christi Parsons and Timothy M. Phelps, Tribune Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration appears to have begun considering the early release of Jonathan Pollard, an American serving a life sentence for spying for Israel, as it tries to nudge the Middle East peace process forward.

On Monday, U.S. officials conspicuously declined to comment on reports that Pollard’s release might be under consideration. Just days earlier, the State Department had issued flat denials after Israeli press reports that the idea was under discussion.

The shift in the official response suggested that — once again — the government might be looking at the early release of Pollard as a way to advance Mideast negotiations.

Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have repeatedly sought Pollard’s early release. Some U.S. officials believe that releasing him could ease the way for Netanyahu to accept negotiating steps the administration wants him to take, particularly the release of Palestinians convicted of terrorist acts.

But U.S. defense and intelligence officials have fought the idea for years, with the CIA leading the way. In 1998, when President Bill Clinton agreed to review the case with an eye toward moving along a Mideast peace accord, CIA Director George Tenet threatened to resign if Pollard were released.

Pollard, 59, a former intelligence analyst for the Navy, pleaded guilty to selling U.S. secrets, including satellite photos and data on Soviet weapons and ship movements, to Israel in the early 1980s. He was sentenced to life in prison in 1987 and is being held at the federal prison in Butner, N.C.

Under federal sentencing rules, Pollard will be eligible for parole in November 2015. As that date draws near, the long-standing opposition to releasing him early might wane, some analysts suggest.

Like his predecessors, Obama has opposed Pollard’s release. Last week, State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki made the possibility sound out of the question.

“Jonathan Pollard was convicted of espionage against the United States, a very serious crime, was sentenced to life in prison and is serving his sentence,” Psaki said in a statement. “There are currently no plans to release Jonathan Pollard.”

On Monday, White House press secretary Jay Carney emphasized only the first part of that statement.

“I have nothing new about Jonathan Pollard that I haven’t said in the past, which is that he was convicted of espionage and he is serving his sentence,” Carney said.

“I have nothing to add to that,” Carney said, before adding, “When it comes to the Middle East peace process and the work being done with both parties to try to move that process forward, there’s a lot of complicated moving parts.”

Seymour D. Reich, an influential New York lawyer who has been campaigning for Pollard’s release, said he thinks the situation is moving in Pollard’s favor.

“I think it’s going to happen, and it’s overdue,” said Reich, a former chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

Israel Delays Scheduled Release Of Palestinian Prisoners, Freezing Peace Talks

Israel Delays Scheduled Release Of Palestinian Prisoners, Freezing Peace Talks

By Batsheva Sobelman, Los Angeles Times

JERUSALEM–A delay in the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel is the latest disruption to the U.S.-brokered peace talks.

When the negotiations resumed in July, Israel agreed to release 104 long-serving Palestinians in four stages throughout the talks. In exchange, the Palestinians agreed to refrain from seeking UN actions backing their position for the duration of the negotiations.

Three groups of prisoners have been freed but Israel has yet to convene the relevant government committee to approve the final group slated for release at the end of March.

The nine months allotted by U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry for the current format for negotiations have yielded little agreement.

The reported U.S. plan to draft an agreed framework to continue the talks beyond the initial period have not succeeded. Alternative efforts to extend the talks past April are tangled in the prisoner release.

Israel will free no more prisoners without a Palestinian commitment to extend the talks. Until it becomes clear what Israel will get in return, “there will be no deal,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday. He also said any proposal for extending the talks would be subject to Cabinet approval.

Meanwhile, the Palestinians reportedly refuse to consider any proposals for extending the talks until Israel goes ahead with the promised release, although chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said in a statement Sunday that “sensitive talks” were ongoing with the U.S. and Israel in attempts to resolve the issue.

Over the weekend, Israeli media reported that an emerging deal for extending the talks involved the release of an additional 400 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki denied on Saturday that any deal had been made.

Kerry has already interrupted a working trip to Europe once to fly to Jordan for a meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, while U.S. officials continue efforts to salvage the talks.

Acroll via Flickr